Identifying the Dimensions and Components of Supply Sector of Creative Tourism (Case Study: Mashhad as the Global City of Gemstones)

Mashhad as one of the most important pilgrimage and tourism destinations of Iran has been declared as a global city of gemstones due to its suitable geographical and mineral status and other related capacities. Apart from the tremendous income generation and job creation that they bring, gemstones have many benefits in the fields of religion, beauty, medicine, architecture, etc., which multiplies the potential of using them in the tourism industry. Creative tourism is a new generation of tourism that has been considered from both supply and demand sides. One of the advantages of this type of tourism is creating trust among tourists to buy authentic handicrafts, which is especially necessary in handicrafts with gemstones industry in Mashhad. The main purpose of this study is identifying the components of creative tourism in gemstones in Mashhad, focusing on the supply sector. For this purpose, after reviewing the literature, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 24 experts of tourism and gems. Thematic analysis was then performed using MAXQDA20 software. Four dimensions (infrastructure, management, marketing and creative tourism’s products and services), 13 main themes, and 57 sub-themes were extracted. The main themes obtained from the qualitative part were provided to the same experts for prioritization. The results of experts’ prioritization were weighted using fuzzy SWARA decision making method. According to the findings, the most important components of creative tourism in Mashhad are managerial, legal and economic issues, followed by culturization and education, marketing strategy, promotional activities, communication and interaction, innovation, ideation, branding, municipal services, identity, originality, and modern technology.